The Northern Consortium (NCUK*) is an educational charity, owned by eleven universities in the north of England, which provides pre-university courses for international students as preparation for study outside of their home country. The Consortium was established 20 years ago and has successfully placed over 10,000 students into universities in the UK.

Owner universities

The Northern Consortium was founded in 1987 by the following universities who still comprise the group’s membership today:

• The University of Bradford
• The University of Huddersfield
• Leeds Metropolitan University
• The University of Leeds
• Liverpool John Moores University
• The University of Liverpool
• Manchester Metropolitan University
• The University of Manchester
• The University of Salford
• Sheffield Hallam University
• The University of Sheffield

Note: NCUK’s original membership of 12 institutions was reduced to 11 by the merger in 2004 of UMIST and the Victoria University of Manchester

In addition to its owning universities NCUK’s qualifications are recognised by a range of other institutions in the England and the UK. NCUK also works with universities in Ireland/Northern Ireland and Australia.

Malaysia project

The Consortium was initially established by the international offices of 12 universities in 1987 who collaborated to design and deliver a split degree programme for Malaysian government-sponsored students. Programmes were developed which aided the Malaysian economy – engineering, computing, pharmacy and business – and delivered as ‘transfer’ programmes. Students studied a first year in Malaysia before transferring to one of NCUK’s founding universities, or to another UK institution.

Over 6,000 students progressed through the programmes and into UK institutions over the 10 years of the project, saving the Malaysian government significant costs in their sponsorship budget.

NCUK today

NCUK currently works in 10 countries around the world – China, India, Japan, Kenya, Nigeria, Vietnam, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Ireland and the UK – to deliver its programmes in local centres, and facilitate students’ progression into its partner universities.

One of NCUK’s strengths is to guarantee all students who pass one of its programmes a place on a suitable course at one of its owner universities, who are also heavily involved in the quality assurance and scrutiny of its programmes.

In 2007 around 1,200 students progressed from NCUK courses into UK universities.

NCUK is based in Manchester in the UK.

Notes

^*NCUK is the charity’s operating company (although the terms are used interchangeably)